T-Minus Four Days Until Congress Reaches Rushed, Short-Term Solution to Fund Federal Government

An old Beltway aphorism: another Monday morning, another failure of both houses of Congress to manufacture a disaster-relief compromise that would keep the government operational after a quickly approaching deadline. The Senate, “which on Friday blocked a GOP House measure to fund the government through November 18, will vote late Monday on its own version of the bill,” The Washington Post reports. “The Senate bill includes dollars for disaster relief without an offsetting spending cut elsewhere that the House G.O.P. demands.” If the plan seems confusing and aimless, it’s because the plan is confusing and aimless. “It is not clear how the dispute will be resolved,” the Post adds. “A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday that leaders have been in touch, but other congressional aides said there was no progress toward a compromise over the weekend.”

Following this closely: people whose homes and businesses have been destroyed by floods and wildfires. “We lost everything,” Pennsylvanian Peter Kelly told The New York Times. “Stove, washer, dryer, TV. Hot water heater, clothes, dishes, refrigerator. Everything, just gone.” Not everything! For five more days, Kelly can enjoy the lavish perks of an enfeebled, defective federal government. “Everything”! It’s hyperbolic rhetoric like that which corrodes the national discourse.